Life's Passage

I was sitting at the kitchen table the other morning, waiting for my breakfast to finish cooking, and absently reading the little travel sayings on a keepsake box I found sitting there. One of them said, "A passage is a one way trip. A voyage is there and back again." I didn't think much of it at the time, just tucked it in the back of my mind as one of those "useless" bits of information.
But on the way home from church this evening I was humming snatches of several different songs by Keith and Kristyn Getty. Suddenly that little tid bit of information from the box came bursting back into my memory. I was singing "Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer", the part that says, "You have called me to this passage, and I'll follow though I'm worn." A passage is a one way trip. Though my way is difficult and I am weary with the journey, it is only a passage, not a voyage. I will not pass this way again. There will be other trials and storms I must pass through, but this storm I must face only once and then it will pass. Another line in the song says, "When the midnight meets the morning let me love You even more." I love that line. "When the midnight meets the morning." Jesus has a way of bringing the morning just when we think it couldn't possibly get any darker, the way couldn't get any more difficult and suddenly we see a ray of sunshine shooting through the storm clouds.
I love the seeming contradictions that we find in out walk with God. They seem to contradict, but in truth, they are beautiful realities! "May the treasures of the trial form within me as I go." How often do we look at a trial as a treasure? But when it is seen from the view point of all God can work in us through that trial, it really is a treasure. Not because of the trial itself, but because of the treasure of Christlikeness is works within us.
Another Getty song says, "Beneath His wings my weary soul may soar." It seems to contradict and yet it doesn't. It is only when we abide in the shelter of His wings that we have the strength, His strength, to lift our own wings and soar to the heights of joy and peace that He has for us.
Here are the lyrics to the two songs I've mentioned here for those of you who aren't familiar with the Gettys.

Jesus Dray Me Ever Nearer

Jesus dray me ever nearer,
As I labor through the storm.
You have called me to this passage,
And I'll follow though I'm worn.

May this journey bring a blessing!
May I rise on wings of faith.
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.

Jesus guide me through the tempest,
Keep my spirit stayed and sure.
When the midnight meets the morning,
Let me love You even more.

May this journey bring a blessing!
May I rise on wings of faith.
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.

Let the treasure of the trial,
Form within me as I go.
And at the end of this long passage,
Let me leave them at Your throne.

May this journey bring a blessing!
May I rise on wings of faith.
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.



What Grace Is Mine.

What grace is mine that He who dwells in endless light,
Called through the night to find my distant soul?
And from His scars poured mercy that would plead for me,
That I might live, and in His name be known.

So I will go wherever He is calling me.
I lose my life to find my life in Him.
I give my all to gain the hope that never dies.
I bow my heart, take up my cross and follow Him.

What grace is mine to know His breath alive in me?
Beneath His wings my weary soul may soar.
All fear can flee for death's dark night is overcome.
My Savior lives and reigns forever more!

So I will go wherever He is calling me.
I lose my life to find my life in Him.
I give my all to gain the hope that never dies.
I bow my heart, take up my cross and follow Him.